The ethics committee of the ruling Saenuri Party on Friday suspended the membership of key loyalists to President Park Geun-hye as part of a sweeping reform drive led by its new chief. Rep. Suh Chung-won and Rep. Choi kyoung-hwan had their memberships put on hold for three years, and Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun for one year.   Rep. Suh Chung-won (Yonhap) The committee said the decision came as Suh, an eight-term lawmaker, sparked the factional feud that adversely affected the party's overall image. Saen

The parliament's education committee on Friday passed a bill to ban state-authored textbooks amid the boycott from conservative parties.  The National Assembly Education, Culture, Sports & Tourism Committee approved the bill that bans the use of textbooks whose copyrights are held by the government. The bill has been handed over to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. The bill targets the Park Geun-hye government's plan to provide middle and high school students with state-authored history t

Former UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday visited parliamentary leaders as he revved up a politically-tinged campaign to build public support and chart his path towards the country's top elected office.A day after his courtesy call to former President Lee Myung-bak, Ban visited National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun and two vice parliamentary speakers -- Rep. Shin Jae-cheol of the ruling Saenuri Party and Rep. Park Joo-sun of the minor opposition People's Party.   Since his return to Korea last Th

South Korea, the United States and Japan on Friday kicked off a naval exercise aimed at countering North Korean missiles amid growing signs that Pyongyang is ready to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile. The Navy said Aegis-equipped destroyers from the three countries will take part in the three-day maritime exercise to detect and trace North Korean missiles under simulated conditions. The missile warning exercise, third of its kind, is aimed at boost their combined capabilities to r

Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Friday pledged to increase daycare centers to support working mothers as part of efforts to tackle the nation's low fertility rate.During a visit to a joint daycare center in the Paju Book City, some 30 kilometers north of Seoul, Hwang noted the burden of childcare is partially attributable to the nation's low fertility rate which has hovered around 1.2 for years."(The government) will seek to expand company daycare centers so that parents can

The number of companies that has changed their names has steadily increased in recent years as some of them sought to improve their corporate images, data showed Friday.Data compiled by the Korea Securities Depository showed that 99 companies -- 19 on the main bourse KOSPI and 80 on the tech-savvy KOSDAQ market -- changed their names in 2016, compared with 67 in 2013.The Korea Securities Depository said 52.5 percent of the companies changed their names to improve their images. Other reasons behi

President Park Geun-hye is likely to delay her plan to hold a press conference before the Lunar New Year holiday next week, her aide said Friday.The impeached president has been criticized for trying to use press conferences to refute corruption allegations and rally her core supporters while refusing to attend the ongoing Constitutional Court hearing or respond to the prosecution's investigation. "We (now) believe that it is not appropriate for her to first hold a press conference before attend

US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) slammed China on Thursday for "bullying" South Korea for its decision to host the US THAAD missile defense system aimed at defending against North Korea, urging Beijing to use its "considerable influence" to rein in Pyongyang.McCain, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also said that Chinese bullying of the Asian ally is "unacceptable" and said he hopes the incoming administration of Donald Trump ensures US security commitments."China is escalating i

KT Corp.'s chief executive, Hwang Chang-gyu, is expected to address challenges and opportunities facing the mobile industry when he speaks at next month's annual industry fair in Spain.Hwang, head of South Korea's biggest telecom services firm, will make a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress show, which will begin its five-day run on Feb. 27. KT CEO Hwang Chang-gyu (Yonhap file photo)Details of Hwang's speech were not known, but he is expected to lay out the company's plans for ultra-fas

The planned Bareun Party on Friday condemned the ruling Saenuri Party for punishing one of its proportional lawmakers who is trying to defect.The remark came as Saenuri decided earlier this week to suspend the membership of Rep. Kim Hyun-ah, a lawmaker elected as a proportional representative, for three years as she decided to join Bareun. Rep. Kim Hyun-ah (Yonhap)The Bareun Party, which will officially set sail later this month, was established with some 30 lawmakers who defected from Saenuri a

South Korean conglomerate Lotte will likely relinquish its golf club in the rural town of Seongju so the land can be used for the deployment of a US air missile defense system, informed sources said Friday, despite possible repercussions for its business in China.According to officials from Lotte Group, Lotte International -- the owner of the Seongju golf club -- is expected to approve an exchange of the club for a piece of land in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, currently owned by the military.Th

Tokyo has complained to Seoul about a reference to Dokdo as South Korean territory on the latter's Olympic website, a report said Friday.Citing multiple sources, Kyodo News said the Japanese foreign ministry has asked South Korea to stop referring to the islets as South Korean territory on the website of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the East Sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, has long been a source of tension between the neighbors. This

South Korea's foreign ministry is pushing to hold high-level talks with the United States "as soon as possible" after Donald Trump takes office and the meetings could come as early as next month, a ministry official said Friday.Negotiations are underway to arrange meetings between Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and the secretaries of state and defense under the Trump administration, according to the official. Trump is to take office on Friday (local time)."(We) are having close communication with

The United States thought in the early 1990s that economic sanctions would not make North Korea give up its nuclear weapons program even if such a step would significantly hurt the North's economy, a declassified report showed Friday.The US analyzed the possible impacts of economic sanctions on North Korea and potential responses from the North, South Korea, China and others, according to the National Intelligence Council's report from December 1991 and titled "North Korea: Likely Response to Ec

A South Korean court held a hearing on Friday to decide whether to issue warrants to arrest the country's culture minister and a former presidential chief of staff over their suspected involvement in the blacklisting of cultural figures deemed critical of the conservative government.An independent counsel team, looking into an influence-peddling scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidante, on Wednesday requested the warrants for Minister Cho Yoon-sun and former top secretary Kim

 Delivery service by South Korea's postal service operator Korea Post ranked No. 1 in consumer satisfaction, a survey showed Friday.Korea Post received 3.97 points out of a possible 5 in overall satisfaction scores on a survey conducted by the Korea Consumer Agency.It is followed by CJ Korea Express Corp., South Korea's largest logistics company, with 3.86 and Logen, a logistics company, with 3.83. Lotte Global Logistics Co. and the logistics unit of Hanjin Group came in third and fourth with 3.

Stock funds invested in basic materials and healthcare are showing promising profits so far this year on expectations of a market boom after new US President Donald Trump takes office, data showed Friday.Fund rating company KG Zeroin said the profit rate for basic materials sector funds ranked at the top with 6.71 percent, followed by healthcare-related funds at 4.76 percent. The company surveyed local and foreign stock funds with more than 1 billion won ($848,896) operated for at least two week

The main opposition Democratic Party on Friday said it will push for a motion to demand the dismissal of Culture Minister Cho Yoon-sun amid suspicions that she played a key role in blacklisting cultural figures critical of the conservative government.Cho and former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon are under investigation over allegations the government created the list of nearly 10,000 people and denied them access to state funding.In response to a news report that Cho testified to the p

Rep. Yoo Seong-min, a potential presidential contender from the conservative Bareun Party, said South Korea should adopt a law to maintain the present service period for conscripts on Friday, as liberal rivals are calling to reduce it to win votes.As South Korea is still technically at war with the North, all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 35 must serve in the military for about two years under the existing system.Yoo's remark came as Moon Jae-in, former head of the Democratic Party

Stock-invested funds have lost their luster, their size now less than half of what they used to be 10 years ago as their unattractive profit showings shed investors, finance industry data indicated Friday.According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, money in local stock-invested funds totaled 73.69 trillion won ($62.55 billion) at the end of last year, or 15.7 percent of total funds summed at 469.31 trillion won. On a year-end tally basis, the ratio is the lowest in 11 years.The prop